Brian Stanley demands one-off energy payment as bills soar

and particularly the cost of energy to households at the moment. And that's obviously escalated further this week. We have one of the highest gas and electricity prices in the European Union. Added to this is the fact that households are paying almost double the cost of electricity that data centres are paying. Average cost for households is 36 pence per unit, cents per unit. Data centres, 19 cents per unit. So they're clearly using their financial clout to get their way. But householders and small businesses are effectively subsidising them. Added to all of this now is the latest price hikes on the back of the aisle on oil and gas due to the illegal war by Israel and the United States in the Middle East. An example of how much fuel has gone up in the last couple of days. One company in Leish was charging 99 cent on Monday morning. By yesterday morning it had gone to 1.57. And some people for a litre of kerosene. Some companies were charging up to 1.71 this morning. The number of households with arrears for electricity has hit record high at 219,000 for 159 households. A jump of 20%. One in four households are in arrears with gas. Workers and households on low and middle incomes are in a particularly hard hit. And I know the fuel allowance is extended but there's a cohort not being caught with that. The hikes in energy costs come in the back of higher rents, higher mortgages, higher insurance costs, higher college fees, higher grocery costs, and it goes on and on and on. To awnish the one group that's really struggling is people with disabilities. They have additional costs due to their additional needs. And indeed a government report from 2020 found that the cost, the additional cost for people with disabilities was between 8,700 and 12,300 annually. And that was in 2020. So they tend to need and use more energy because they're obviously to return more. So in the budget prior to the election, in the budget prior to the general election, they got cost of living measures, additional fuel allowance, living alone allowance, additional in that, energy credits, no election, zero, nothing, nothing for this year. The budget came and went and didn't receive anything. So their income, they estimate, is down. Their representative close down by 1,400 per year on what they were getting in 2025. But the response so far from government is to go to the CWO, the Community Welfare Officer for an Exception Needs Payment. The vast majority of people, and I've looked at this, would not qualify for that. People who are on low and middle incomes. What's needed now is a targeted single energy payment. And I do say targeted. I don't want money thrown all over the place. I got an energy credit a year and a half ago from you, or 15 months ago. We shouldn't be getting an energy credit. We need to target those who need it. Those who are on median and low incomes. They need to get it. Will the government now move to assist these people and introduce a one-off payment for that? And also move in terms of the price gouging. I heard what the minister said, that you're meeting the companies, but you also need to strengthen the powers of the CCPC as well. Thank you, Deputy Stanley. So we have intentions to further strengthen the powers of the CCPC, and we look forward to working with people across this house in relation to that. I agree with you in relation to that point. I also agree with you in relation to there not being a need for a universal energy credit anymore. TDs don't need energy credits, I agree with you. There are people who need assistance. And the targeted way we're going about it, and we can debate how different parties will have different ideas, but the targeted way the government is going about it is through the expansion of the fuel allowance. You're making the case that you'd like to see it, I think, further expanded to cover more people. We're adding 50,000 more households into it next week. I hear the point about the data centres, and I do just want to respond to that, because people, I don't mean this in relation to you, but people can hear a headline or something, and they think, hang on, that doesn't sound fair, and it doesn't when you hear the headline. But when you actually look at the detail, it's not comparing like with like. The data centres have to pay significant fixed costs for the infrastructure, as is right and as is appropriate. The tariff might be lower, but the actual amount they're spending on the energy infrastructure is a hell of a lot higher, as it should be, than a household as well, and I think that's an important point. In relation to people with disabilities, the government has been very clear on this. We've increased the level of investment in disability services this year by around 20%, 618 million euro extra. That was the priority, investing further in disability services in much-needed investment. We have said very clearly we will devise a cost of disability payment. Minister Derek Cleary has opened the consultation process in relation to that. We're eager to get everybody's ideas and views as to how to best construct that as well. And I would say we have increased the weekly disability payments, weekly carers payments, weekly pension payments, and we did keep the likes of the Christmas bonus as well, just in terms of you saying nothing was done. I'd have to reject that as well. We have, though, and we have to also be honest about this, we have seen inflation fall from a very high level. We have seen, for the first time in a long time, real incomes in Ireland rising again. We do need to make that point. These figures are there, they're there for all to see. They're not my figures, they're published by the CSO. Incomes are now increasing in this country again. What we have to watch, and to be honest about this, is if we get into a position of a prolonged conflict in the Middle East and in the Gulf region, the adverse effect that that could have on inflation, could have on commodity prices, and the shocks that that could cause to the global economy. That's where our priority and our focus has to be now. But I want to say to people, because again, I'm conscious people are anxious, people are worried. I can fully understand that with what they're seeing on their television screens, the text messages they're getting about heating, the things they're seeing at the pumps. I want to say this, this country is approaching this moment of potential economic shock from a position of strength, from a position where we have more people in work than ever before, where the economy is performing well, where we've built up financial buffers. And that allows the government to make informed, evidence-based responses in the time ahead. And that's exactly what we intend to do. And governments right across Europe are grappling with this. And that's why we'll also have that engagement at a European level, starting with European finance ministers on Monday. Please stand, Lee. I'm sorry for your reply, and you said to make an informed, evidence-based response. And that's fine. But the evidence is there. There's 320,000 households plus in serious arrears. And we're only talking about electricity there. One in four with gas. There's a real problem. I've constituents contacted me. People who are on middle incomes who just cannot make it all go around. I'm sure the rest of you are hearing this as well. I want to just highlight to you as well, you know, one extra factor is this, is that, you know, progress has been made with retrofitting. But it's slow enough. You know, 75% of homes in the Midlands and in counties like Leash are basically on solid fuel or oil. That tells you they need an energy upgrade. And they're caught that way because they have high energy costs. There's a particular problem here for people in County Leash and in the Midlands. But I'm asking you, and I know you can't target them specifically, but there's a real issue. There's an immediate problem. I'm not asking you to come in and throw money all over the place. I'm asking you to do a targeted payment here, one-off payment, to help those people who are really struggling at the moment, those householders, you know, who cannot make ends meet at the moment, and introduce that one-off payment to help those and people who are with disabilities and low- and middle-income workers. I'm extraordinarily conscious of the fact that people who are following this debate and discussion, people at home, people in workplaces today, are feeling an extraordinary sense of economic anxiety. I am very conscious of that fact. But I also have to make sure that we can have the best data and best analysis available in terms of the economic impact that this conflict may have on our country, it may have on the Eurozone, it may have on the global economy. That enables the government to then decide how best to intervene should that be required. I've made the point before earlier today, I make it again, working at a European level is important. That's what we did as a country at the start of the brutal Russian legal invasion of Ukraine. It brought about policy changes and regulations and decisions at a European level that allowed, for example, for a windfall tax and the benefits of that being utilised for our citizens as well. So as the Taoiseach said yesterday, as I say today, and we're completely at idem on this, we keep all of these matters under review. We've taken a number of practical measures already to assist people, including the expansion of the fuel allowance to 50,000 more households next week, the reduction of the valuation of people's energy bills, the reduction of the PSO, increasing the rate of fuel allowance as well, and we continue to work on this intensively in the time ahead. Thank you very much.